Competing in a Mature Market: The Case of Super AM Food Markets

The EXPO-AM supermarket entered the Rochester, Massachusetts food market using a retailing format that its parent company had used successfully in England where it went under the store banner “Super EU.†This case describes how the concept was developed and implemented in Rochester over a three year period, 2000-2003. At the time of the case, 2003, Ted Edwards, the general manager of Super AM Food Markets, has been asked to prepare a turnaround plan for the banner after it has shown poor performance.supermarket, competitive advantage, competitive rivalry, strategy implementation, organizational structure, Consumer/Household Economics, Demand and Price Analysis, Production Economics, Q10, Q11,

European Venture Philanthropy and Social Investment 2011/2012: The EVPA Survey

These are the key results of the second report on the European Venture Philanthropy Industry published by the European Venture Philanthropy Association. The purpose of the report is to provide key statistics and raise awareness about a sector that is evolving rapidly so as to attract further resources to the sector. Data has been collected from 61 leading venture philanthropy and social investment organisations (VPOs) across 18 European countries

QCD-induced Electroweak Phase Transition

Phase transitions associated with nearly conformal dynamics are known to lead to significant supercooling. A notorious example is the phase transition in Randall-Sundrum models or their CFT duals. In fact, it was found that the phase transition in this case is first-order and the tunneling probability for the radion/dilaton is so small that the system typically remains trapped in the false vacuum and the phase transition never completes. The universe then keeps expanding and cooling. Eventually the temperature drops below the QCD scale. We show that the QCD condensates which subsequently form give an additional contribution to the radion/dilaton potential, an effect which had been ignored so far. This significantly reduces the barrier in the potential and allows the phase transition to complete in a substantially larger region of parameter space. Due to the supercooling, electroweak symmetry is then broken simultaneously. This class of models therefore naturally leads to an electroweak phase transition taking place at or below QCD temperatures, with interesting cosmological implications and signatures.Comment: 33 pages, 5 figure

Electroweak Phase Transition and Baryogenesis in Composite Higgs Models

We present a comprehensive study of the electroweak phase transition in composite Higgs models, where the Higgs arises from a new, strongly-coupled sector which confines near the TeV scale. This work extends our study in Ref. [1]. We describe the confinement phase transition in terms of the dilaton, the pseudo-Nambu-Goldstone boson of broken conformal invariance of the composite Higgs sector. From the analysis of the joint Higgs-dilaton potential we conclude that in this scenario the electroweak phase transition can naturally be first-order, allowing for electroweak baryogenesis. We then extensively discuss possible options to generate a sufficient amount of CP violation - another key ingredient of baryogenesis - from quark Yukawa couplings which vary during the phase transition. For one such an option, with a varying charm quark Yukawa coupling, we perform a full numerical analysis of tunnelling in the Higgs-dilaton potential and determine regions of parameter space which allow for successful baryogenesis. This scenario singles out the light dilaton region while satisfying all experimental bounds. We discuss future tests. Our results bring new opportunities and strong motivations for electroweak baryogenesis.Comment: 61 pages, 29 figures, 2 tables; v2: Analysis updated to account for washout of the baryon asymmetry during reheating after the phase transition, JHEP versio

Steel Magnolias (September 9-11, 16-18, 2010)

Program for Steel Magnolias (September 9-11, 16-18, 2010). To view the photos from this production of Steel Magnolias, please click here

Quantification of left-to-right shunt through Patent Ductus Arteriosus by colour Doppler

The aim of this thesis was to develop a non-invasive method to quantify the size of a shunt through a patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) by ultrasound and to test its usability in clinical settings. There is no consensus regarding the optimal management strategy for a PDA in premature infants. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) are the first treatment of choice. The use of NSAIDs, especially indomethacin, should be carefully balanced, as they have their disadvantages. In our experimental study in lambs, indomethacin acutely reduced the coronary flow by up to 50% and the effect lasted for up to one hour. In our lamb model, we developed a non-invasive method to quantify the ductal shunt by ultrasound. The flow was measured with electromagnetic flow meters in the ascending aorta and in the ductus and a colour Doppler image was obtained simultaneously over the main pulmonary artery longitudinal cross-section including ductal inflow. The percentage of colour pixels representing ductal flow was quantified in the main pulmonary artery outlined by anatomic landmarks. There was a correlation between the ratio of pulmonary to systemic flow (Qp/Qs) and the percentage of total colours covering the cross-section and there was an even better correlation with green pixels alone. When the Qp/Qs was ≥ 1.5:1, the percentage of green pixels in PALS was ≥ 50. In children admitted for the device closure of the open ductus, the method had 92% sensitivity for a measured Qp/Qs of ≥ 1.5. In preterm infants during the first three days of life, the ductal diameter but not the quantified ductal shunt predicted the need for treatment. We showed further that the perinatal cytokine burden during the first three days of life is not associated with an increased need to close the ductus, but it is associated with increased ductal diameter and reduced systolic blood pressure. We suggest that our method could be used as a non-invasive tool to determine a haemodynamically significant ductal shunt. Using the evaluated Qp/Qs of > 1.5:1 as a guide for treatment decisions might reduce the need for unnecessary interventions and reduce complications